1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic musical instruments equipped with displays, in which musical tones are generated under control of manual operators while instructive information such as characters are displayed on screens.
This application is based on Patent Application No. Hei 11-43797 filed in Japan, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some of the electronic musical instruments conventionally known have hardware systems and software architectures in which musical tones are generated and controlled in states in accordance with manual operations applied to manual operable members such as switches, controls and wheels (hereinafter, simply referred to as xe2x80x9cmanual operatorsxe2x80x9d which are manually operated by human operators, for example) while instructive information being represented by characters or else are displayed on screens. Namely, the electronic musical instruments of this kind are equipped with manual operators for controlling generation of the musical tones in various states, displays for displaying characters on screens and tone generators for generating the musical tones in accordance with tone-generation instructions.
Conventionally, some electronic musical instruments have functions by which power supply is automatically cut off if no manual operator is operated for a prescribed time or more. In addition, some computers have functions by which visual images of displays are changed over if keyboards are not operated for a prescribed time or more.
The aforementioned functions of the electronic musical instruments are provided for the saving of electric power being consumed. In addition, the functions of the computers are provided to prevent screens of the displays from being subjected to burnout. For sale and advertisement, the electronic musical instruments are normally displayed at stores and/or in exhibition areas so that visitors and buyers are able to actually operate them. Within the electronic musical instruments which are displayed at the stores or else, some electronic musical instruments are not provided for the visitors to actually operate and are automatically cut out for the purpose of the saving of electric power being consumed. Or, some electronic musical instruments are continuously supplied with electric power but are left unattended. The electronic musical instruments of the aforementioned conditions cannot attract interests of the visitors or customers. So, the conventional electronic musical instruments are not designed to raise advertisement effects at the stores and/or in the exhibition areas.
It is an object of the invention to provide an electronic musical instrument, which is capable of displaying images (or visuals) for demonstration and/or which is capable of generating sounds for demonstration.
Thus, the electronic musical instrument which is continuously supplied with electric power but is left unattended is able to demonstrate functions and performance thereof, so it is possible to attract interests of visitors and customers in sale and advertisement at stores or else.
Basically, an electronic musical instrument of this invention is equipped with manual operators such as switches and controls arranged on an operation panel and keys of a keyboard as well as a display and a tone generator. It is characterized by automatically running demonstration programs when it is supplied with electric power but is left unattended at a store or in an exhibition area. The demonstration programs are started after a lapse of a predetermined time or more under prescribed conditions where none of the manual operators is operated by a user, no tone-generation instruction is issued with respect to automatic performance being played by internal functions, and no tone-generation instruction is issued with respect to external performance data being supplied by means of a communication interface. Under each of those conditions, the electronic musical instrument automatically runs a display demonstration program for displaying preset images on a screen of the display and/or a sound demonstration program for generating preset sounds. Specifically, the display automatically shows specifications, system configurations and messages with regard to the electronic musical instrument. In addition, the tone generator automatically generates automatic performance sounds or vocalized sounds of voice guidance to overall operation of the electronic musical instrument.
When a manual operation to the manual operator is detected during execution of the demonstration programs, or when a tone-generation instruction is detected with respect to the automatic performance or external performance data during execution of the demonstration programs, the electronic musical instrument automatically stops running the demonstration programs and is reverted to a normal condition that allows the setting of tone colors and/or effects with regard to musical tones by the manual operators and that allows generation of musical tones with performance of the keyboard.
By the aforementioned automated demonstrations, it is possible to attract interests of visitors and customers at the store or in the exhibition area although the electronic musical instrument being supplied with electric power is displayed and is left unattended.